Letter-writers concerned about Jordan-Elbridge personnel and board of education issues

Mike Greenlar/The Post Standard KRIS HUMPHREYS, a parent of a senior at Jordan-Elbridge High School, was the first to speak Sunday at the parent meeting held at the Elbridge in Fire Depart´ment. She said she was troubled by the talk on the street she overheard about the J-E School District while in Skaneateles over the weekend.

Suggestions for the school district
To the Editor:
In my opinion, the purpose of any board of education is to prudently spend the taxpayers’ money to offer the best education it can afford, and to hire qualified individuals who can offer healthy leadership and be entrusted with developing a program that will achieve that purpose.

Boards of education should not be usurping the authority for decisions that are best left to trained, dedicated professionals in the field of education, nor should they use their elected position to resolve their own complaints.

In that regard, there are several legitimate concerns and questions that need to be addressed by the Jordan-Elbridge School Board:

ÖIf the investigation of former Elbridge Elementary School principal Janice Schue showed no wrongdoing that would warrant her dismissal, she should be returned to her previous position as an elementary principal.

ÖIf, as stated in a recent news report, the principal suspended by the Jordan-Elbridge school district, Dave Zehner, “has done nothing illegal” but was suspended due to differences in “management style,” he, too, should be returned to the job this board hired and tenured him to do.

ÖFreedom of Information Law documents indicate that the district’s lawyer is among its highest paid employees. Yet he has apparently been ineffective in accomplishing the boards’ legal agenda, such that they have hired additional legal staff. Assuming he is contracted one year at a time, this year should be his last as legal counsel for the district and new counsel should not be contracted until the next year.

ÖWith recent dismissals and suspensions in the financial arm of the district office, control of district finances is concentrated in the hands of the director of operations, the person with the least experience and qualification in that office. Adding insult to injury, she was also given a raise for her “additional duties.”

ÖHundreds of thousands of dollars are being spent on an unnecessary administrative position and dead-end legal battles. Wouldn’t that money be better spent on teachers, and support staff in positions that directly affect students and the efficient running of the district?

ÖIs it true that the board has hired an outside agency to conduct a superintendent search? Aren’t superintendent searches usually conducted much more cost-effectively with the assistance of the local BOCES superintendent?

ÖThis district is in desperate need of healing and leadership. I define leadership as the ability to bring differing voices together for respectful conversation in order to create greater understanding and a shared vision. To that end, this board needs to seriously reconsider its plan to appoint

Effective leaders and boards nurture their staff, just as effective teachers nurture their students, in ways that allow them to develop their full potential. Let us hope that our next board election offers us candidates who are ready to do that.

Shannon Hamer
Jordan

J-E board must hire new administration to clean up
To the Editor:
Public concern in the Jordan-Elbridge community regarding the administration of our schools is not a new topic. The Post-Standard has reported on this many times during the last decade. It troubles us that certain individuals are being portrayed as “victims” in the current conflict; if one were to dig deeper into J-E’s past, it is more than obvious that administrative issues are ongoing.

What is now resurfacing via the questions of concerned residents is merely more evidence pointing to the weakness of the current superintendent’s long-standing inability to resolve personnel issues.

It is our hope that the board of education will hire new administration that has the ability to correct past bad practices and build/maintain a positive environment for the entire school community.